Police launch campaign to protect Metro Vancouver bus drivers

Mike Hager, Vancouver Sun03.31.2014

Coast Mountain has taken several measures to improve safety on its buses, including making all buses a fare-paid zone, installing CCTV cameras, adding more security and the TransLink police force on buses and installing GPS trackers. Drivers also have access to a stealth buzzer that alerts TransLink’s operators to an emergency on a bus. File photo.

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METRO VANCOUVER - Transit Police have launched a new campaign warning the public “don’t touch the operator” after two Metro Vancouver bus drivers were the target of separate violent and unprovoked assaults over the past month.

The campaign, which officially launches at a news conference Monday morning, is the latest move by authorities intent on better protecting the men and women who move Metro Vancouver’s commuting masses.

Last week, TransLink and other national transit authorities appealed to Canada's justice minister to institute stronger sentences for people who attack bus drivers.

The move, by the Canadian Urban Transit Association, comes as a Surrey bus driver was punched in the face last Wednesday night.

The latest attack brings to 42 the number of reported assaults in the region so far this year. The assaults range from death threats to physical abuse, but the majority involve being spit on and being verbally threatened, according to bus drivers’ union Unifor Local 111.

There were 134 assaults reported in Metro last year - up from 117 assaults a year earlier - contributing to the roughly 2,000 cases reported across Canada. This averages out to about five bus drivers assaulted in Canada per day.

March 11, 2014 - Three women are charged with a vicious, unprovoked attack on a female Coast Mountain Bus driver.

February 3, 2014 - Brandon John Watterworth, 23, was charged with robbery and breaching bail conditions in connection with the assault of a bus driver at the Surrey City Central bus loop. Watterworth has more than 100 recorded interactions with police. He was on bail in connection with 2012 charges of assaulting a police officer, carrying a concealed weapon and carrying a prohibited weapon without a licence.

August 2013 - A middle-aged man pointed a handgun at a Kelowna bus driver and threatened to kill him. He approached the driver's window after getting offthe bus and pulled the trigger three times, police said. The pistol made a clicking sound each time, terrifying the driver.

June 29, 2013 - Amanda Chrystal Best, 31 at the time, stabbed a Kelowna bus driver with a syringe. Best pleaded guilty to aggravated assault and possession of the prohibited weapon (brass knuckles), and was sentenced to two years in jail to be followed by three years of probation.

June 2013 - A Vancouver passenger sucker punched a driver and shattered his orbital bone because the driver asked him to pay his fare. He was sentenced to 60 days in jail after breaking probation.

September 23, 2012 - Carlos Monge assaulted a bus driver for refusing him a free ride and also assaulted a female passenger. He was charged with two counts of assault stemming from the incident. He was also charged with assault, robbery and theft under $5,000 related to another incident. Monge was sentenced to nine months in jail, and was given 18 months of probation to be served on his release from prison.

October 2012 - TransLink issued a news release highlighting a case in Burnaby, in which a man threatened to slash the throat of a bus driver, and another case in the Downtown Eastside, where a woman spat at a bus driver. The suspect in the Burnaby incident was sentenced to 15 days in jail, while the woman was sentenced to 17 days for the incident in the Downtown Eastside.

February 2012 - Steven Fayant assaulted a bus driver after the driver allowed him to ride without paying the fare. Fayant lunged at Punni and grabbed his throat, pinning him to his seat. Fayant, 20, pleaded guilty in to assault and aggravated assault. He was sentenced to 22 months in jail.

February 2011 - Del Louie pleaded guilty to assault causing bodily harm and assault with a weapon after attacking bus driver Charles Dixon and shattering his right orbital bone with a sucker punch and then attacking Dixon's son Aaron with a broom handle. Louie was given an 18-month conditional sentence that included house arrest.

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Police launch campaign to protect Metro Vancouver bus drivers

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